Organizations commonly practice the disciplines associated with operational resilience: business continuity, disaster recovery, incident management, crisis management and risk management.
However, the effectiveness of these activities in an emergency may be limited due to cultural and departmental silos. Include an interdisciplinary approach to incident response in operational resilience training.
Acceptance of operational resilience within organizations has grown steadily, after senior management recognized its importance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the pandemic, increased interactions, communications and knowledge-sharing among specific corporate disciplines are needed to keep businesses operational.
The evolution to operational resilience requires communications, collaboration and knowledge sharing that transverses and integrates multiple corporate activities. Operational resilience training activities and awareness must evolve.
A high-level view of operational resilience
The figure below depicts the corporate functions that are most likely to interact in the course of achieving operational resilience.
Operational resilience is beginning to supersede more traditional emergency activities, and organizations of all sizes and types need to consider adopting it in business operations. A key element is the interaction among and between the disciplines. No silos here. This is how resilience activities differ from traditional emergency initiatives. Each discipline plays an essential role in keeping the business operational. A resilient organization requires significant communication and cooperation.
Operational resilience is the ability to alter operations in the face of changing business conditions. Organizations that achieve operational resilience are adaptable, secure and ready to face potential disasters.
Operational resilience frameworks hinge on breaking down silos
Organizational vs. operational resilience: What’s the difference?
Bolster an operational resilience strategy with these tips
Raise awareness of resilience efforts
A well-rounded operational resilience training program should kick off with awareness activities. Here’s how to create and sustain awareness of operational resilience efforts:
- Develop a plan. Perform an analysis to find out the existing level of operational resilience awareness. Use this analysis to develop a project plan to increase awareness within the organization.
- Talk to human resources. Create documented policies and procedures for operational resilience training and awareness for internal reference. Collaborate with HR and corporate training departments to develop these policies and procedures and set up a schedule of awareness activities.
- Include senior management. Invite members of senior management to participate in related meetings and ensure they endorse awareness activities. Schedule periodic briefings with business unit leaders and senior management on the operational resilience program.
- Inform employees of all levels. Gather employee input on resilience efforts in various areas of the organization. Use these comments for outreach messages. Use internal email, a company intranet or social media platform to send periodic messages on the operational resilience program and ongoing training activities. Schedule periodic briefings and QA sessions on the operational resilience program with employees. Consider running surveys to gather comments and suggestions from employees not directly involved in the operational resilience program. Keep communications on operational resilience brief, yet informative.
<section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Operational resilience training step Operational resilience training must be focused, well organized and structured, performed regularly, and coordinated with operational resilience plan exercising activities.
Below are activities to develop a successful operational resilience training program from start to finish. Training details may vary Print out the above step-by-step outline for establishing an operational resilience training program at your organization.